School library media specialist, youth services librarian, information management resource officer... We have many titles but we are all technically librarians.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Why Can't Johnny read?

This is always a great topic. Usually blame is put firmly on the school's shoulders but Walter Dean Myers spoke up yesterday in The Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

"I would say there is a crisis," said children's book author Walter Dean Myers. "Too many parents have walked away from this idea . . . that education is a family concept, is a community concept, is not simply something that schools do."

It should be the community. If students aren't read to at home and encouraged to read, the blame shouldn't be put on the schools. Parents should be held accountable too. Myers is primarily speaking about boys' reading habits and is giving a lecture called "Books & Boys -- Making It Work!" at the University of Washington this week.